Deeplinks Blog posts about Mass Surveillance Technologies

The Obama administration promised privacy protections for foreigners abroad, but PPD-28 fails to deliver those protections

In early 2014, still reeling from global outrage over recently uncovered surveillance programs, President Barack Obama pledged to rein in the U.S. government’s spying and boost privacy protections for people in the U.S. and abroad. His words were heartening:

“People around the world, regardless of their nationality, should know that the United States is not spying on ordinary people … and that we take their privacy concerns into account,” he said, standing in front of American flags at Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Illinois has joined the growing ranks of states limiting how police may use cell-site simulators, invasive technology devices that masquerade as cell phone towers and turn our mobile phones into surveillance devices. By adopting the Citizen Privacy Protection Act, Illinois last month joined half a dozen other states—as well as the Justice Department and one federal judge—that have reiterated the constitutional requirement for police to obtain a judicial warrant before collecting people's location and other personal information using cell-site simulators.

The Yale Law Journal has published a short essay that I wrote in response to an article by Robert Litt, General Counsel to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on the Fourth Amendment in the Digital Age. Mr. Litt uses EFF's NSA Spying case Jewel v. NSA and the Klayman v. Obama case, where I argued as amicus, as examples, so it seemed only reasonable that EFF reply. It's here and it's only 10 pages long: